Spider-Man Director's Version of Warcraft Had a "Fundamental" Problem, Jones Says

Speaking this week at a PAX East panel, Warcraft director Duncan Jones talked about taking over directorial duties for the project after Spider-Man director Sam Raimi dropped out. He specifically mentioned that Raimi's version of Warcraft had a "fundamental" problem, which was that it was going to be a movie that depicted the human characters as completely good and the Orcs as inherently evil. This depiction of the Warcraft universe was flawed, Jones said, adding that Blizzard, too, thought this was the wrong direction.

"When I got involved, [Blizzard] had already been through the hardships of not getting the film made," Jones said. "And there was kind of a pause, a stalled process as they worked out how they were going to move forward. I had been tracking [the Warcraft movie], purely as a fan, knowing that Sam Raimi was involved. I wanted to see the movie. I heard that he had decided to part ways and go do Oz."

Raimi officially left Warcraft in July 2012 to instead make Oz: The Great and Powerful. At this time, having just finished Source Code, Jones obtained a copy of Raimi's Warcraft script, ultimately discovering what he considered to be a major problem.

"I really wanted to know what the film was going to be like," he said. "So I managed to get a sneaky look at the script and I was like 'Ohh, it's good, but there's something really wrong with it.' And it was the fact that it was human heroes against Orc villains. To me, that was fundamental misstep."

Jones went on to say that he understands why Blizzard wasn't thrilled with Raimi's vision for the movie and ultimately decided to go a different direction.

When Jones pitched his version of Warcraft to Blizzard, the developer was thrilled, he said, as his idea was "totally synchronous" with what creative people like Chris Metzen wanted from it.

"This was a movie that shows the heroes on all sides. As much as you can, make it half human, half orc as far as what we portray," Jones said.

Also during his panel this week, Jones said Warcraft will "veer off" the core Warcraft lore in some sections. But when it does, it will be for the purpose of making the movie better overall, he and actor Robert Kazinsky said. The goal is to avoid another Super Mario Bros. movie, Kazinsky said.

Finally, Jones also shared a new Warcraft poster featuring the character Draka. Warcraft opens on June 10.

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